The Specialized Philatelic Wiki

German occupation of Macedonia: types and varieties of postage stamps.

After Bulgarian retreat from the World War II, Macedonia was occupied by German forces. It was proclaimed independent on the 8th of September 1944 and a Government was formed. The State existed until German retreat on the 13th of November 1944.

The set of overprinted Bulgarian stamps was issued on the 28th of October 1944. To this date no postally used items with these stamps were found. The most of cancellations on original stamps are forged (the original contemporary postal cancel is in private possession), which is also the case with examples presented on this page.

1. Types of overprints

There are two types of overprints on all stamps, that differ in numeral 9 in 1944. Type I appears twice in sheets of 1 Lev on 10 Stotinki and 3 Leva on 15 Sototinki, on fields 45 and 95. On all other values it appears only once, on 44th field.

Type I: lower strike in numeral 9 in 1944 pointing downwards.

Type II: lower strike pointing upwards.

2. Possible types of overprints

POSSIBLE TYPES (not mentioned in literature)

6 Leva on 10 Stotinki, blue

The first numeral 4 in 1944 narrow.(Note the position: narrow 4 is above the 14th stamp.)